“As a trusted partner to many of these EHR vendors, we continue to make significant progress towards breaking down costly communication barriers among care providers,” said Harry Totonis, president and chief executive officer of Surescripts. “The Surescripts network provides connected EHRs and their rapidly growing contracted base the scale they need to connect care providers within a community and across the country.”

Surescripts clinical messaging allows patient-specific protected health information to be instantaneously and securely transmitted between healthcare providers, leading to increased efficiency, informed care decisions, better patient outcomes, and lower healthcare cost. Users of these EHR systems will be able to easily connect to the Surescripts network to enable clinical messaging capabilities as part of their efforts to meet new healthcare industry standards, including Meaningful Use stage 2.

“When looking to form a strategic partnership to support Merge’s new iConnect® Network, it was critical for us to find an industry-leading organization that is well positioned to support the growth of radiology,” said Justin Dearborn, CEO of Merge Healthcare. “With Surescripts, now hospitals, providers and imaging centers can leverage an advanced imaging network to seamlessly exchange imaging information electronically with their community physicians and deliver reports directly into their EHR. This simple solution allows our customers to meet Meaningful Use Stage 2 regulatory requirements, increase their referral business and enhance their overall financial performance.”

These EHR vendors represent a broad range of solutions serving clinical users in a variety of markets, including healthcare providers in ambulatory and acute hospitals, specialty pharmacies, medical labs, small and mid-sized physician practices, dental practices, and specialty practices ranging from nephrology to veterinarian medicine.

Over the course of the past 12 years, Surescripts has built a trusted network to facilitate the exchange of a wide range of comprehensive health information. Surescripts is a founding member of DirectTrust and recently received full accreditation from the Direct Trusted Agent Accreditation Program (DTAAP), an accreditation program for health information service providers (HISPs). DTAAP is offered on a voluntary basis by DirectTrust, an independent non-profit association dedicated to securing the exchange of health information between providers and patients.

About Surescripts

Surescripts operates a national clinical network that connects pharmacies, payers, pharmacy benefit managers, physicians, hospitals, integrated delivery networks, health information exchanges and health technology firms to enable the efficient and secure exchange of health information. Guided by the principles of neutrality, transparency, physician and patient choice, open standards, collaboration and privacy, Surescripts provides information for routine, recurring and emergency care. Together with our network participants, Surescripts is committed to saving lives, improving efficiency and reducing the cost of health care for all. For more information, go to www.surescripts.com and follow us at twitter.com/surescripts.

About Merge

Merge is a leading provider of clinical systems and innovations that seek to transform healthcare. Merge's enterprise and cloud-based solutions for image intensive specialties provide access to any image, anywhere, any time. Merge also provides clinical trials software and other health data and analytics solutions that engage consumers in their personal health. With solutions that are used by providers and consumers and include more than 25 years of innovation, Merge is helping to reduce costs and improve the quality of healthcare worldwide. For more information, visit merge.com.